After months of drama between Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole, the former American Idol judge is coming clean about what really happened between the two Brits.

Cheryl was originally set to leave her post as a judge on the U.K.’s X Factor for a spot on the U.S. version, premiering in September. Then earlier this summer, Ms. Cole was dropped from the U.S. show. No reason was given then, but now Simon is saying that Cheryl wasn't happy in America, so she reached out to her reps to see if she could return to her original show.

"I came to the conclusion that she may not be as comfortable here because I was seeing a different person. She was like Princess Diana when she would walk out in England, and I accepted the fact that people didn’t know her here, but I think it did have an effect on her.”

Simon confronted Cheryl on the second day of filming, explaining to her that she had “to raise your game a bit. This is America, it’s a much tougher market." Shortly after, Simon got Cheryl a huge pay raise – upwards of $4 million! – to return to the U.K. show, and by the next day they were negotiating the deal. However, Cheryl never responded to the final round of negotiations. Honest as usual, Simon revealed that he’s “not happy with the way it played out."

The two haven’t spoken since the incident.

The final The X Factor lineup features Paula Abdul, former record exec Antonio "L.A." Reid, and singer Nicole Scherzinger as judges with British cutie Steve Jones as host. The show is set to premiere September 21 on Fox.